As many of you know, I launched a support forum earlier this year. There were hundreds of members and tons of interesting conversations going on. The Autism Help Forums weren't for Autism related things only. This forum supports the entire special needs community. Unfortunately, I lost the database and I had to rebuild the forums, from scratch. This means that I am rebuilding the community and need your help.  However, out of the ashes of what was, has emerged something better. I have recently relaunched the Autism Help Forums, with updated software and better Facebook integration. Visit the Autism Help Forums, sign up and and introduce yourself. I realize that it can be tough to start the conversation but we need to break the ice sometime. However, I'm most excited to announce the release…

What could possibly happen in the 2 hours that Gavin was home today? He has the kids bouncing off the walls, literally.  He's been very loud and all over the place. I'll explain more later. I can safely say, this has been the longest 2 hours of my life. 

I'm sharing this petition with all of you.  I didn't write this and I have no first hand knowledge of this particular account.  I will say that this isn't the first time I have heard of something like this happening. It's sad, that in this day and age we are dealing with this type of situation.  Is it reasonable for the YMCA to provide services for every child, regardless of the challenges presented by that child?  I think that there needs to be a line drawn somewhere but at the same time, there needs to be transparency and a very clear set of guidelines.  Parents need to know, going into the program, what the expectations will be and what will happen if a child presents with behaviors that they simply…

We are waiting for our turn at Dr.  Reynolds office.  He's running a bit behind today so we have a few minutes.   Lizze is teaching the boys to play tic tak toe. Is that how you spell it? I don't know how long the boys are going to last today but hopefully it's enough to make it through the last appointment for the day. I'm totally praying that we can walk out of this appointment with something to help Elliott magange his anxiety.  He needs relief from that and it would really be nice if we could give that to him. Fingers crossed.

Thankfully, I'm feeling a bit better this morning.  Emmett on the other hand, doesn't appear to be. He's become very, very persnickety. I think there are many contributing factors to his demeanor and none of it is really his fault.  Having said that, simply because we don't blame him for how he's acting doesn't mean it impacts us any less.  I assure you, listening to anyone scream their head off over seemingly random things, doesn't get easier with time. In fact, to be completely honest, it slowly erodes away what's left of my sanity. I wish I knew how to help Emmett through, whatever it is he's going through. I wish I could remove what is so clearly burdening him.  The problem is, I can't really do any of that.…

We remembered at the last minute this morning, that Elliott has an appointment with Dr.  Reynolds.  That one realization changed almost all of our plans for today. First starters, Elliott will likely be home from school for the day.  This appointment will be about Elliott's anxiety and the possibility of addressing the ADHD and anxiety with kids every single medication. I don't know how this afternoon is going to go, especially after Gavin comes home from school.  Hopefully, we'll have a survivable day.

It looks like I'm getting sick.  Nothing serious, most likely ahead cold.  My head is pounding and I'm all congested. Before I got too bad, I ran to Walgreens and picked up some NyQuil.  I'm writing this as I'm waiting for it to take me away to dreamland.  I don't know how this week is going to go if I'm sick.  We're supposed to meet with Wraparound in the morning and Gavin will be home in the afternoons for most of the week. If this is what Emmett is coming down with, I can certainly understand why he's been grouchy.  I don't get sick very often but when I do, I tend to get really sick. I hope is that I can sleep this off tonight and feel better in…

Lizze is in so much pain today that she's been getting sick, on and off, all day long. I can't get her to drink much of anything.  I'm probably going to have to figure out a way to sneak out and get her some gatorade.  I wish we could catch a friggin break. This week is going to be exceptionally rough because Gavin will be coming home after school because my parents car is in the shop and with the recent death in the family, they will likely be spending some time out of town, with family. All completely understandable. However, having Gavin back in the house is really going to cause significant disruption for Lizze and the boys. This is going to be a very, very long week.